Video Transcript:
How many types of liens on property are there? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com. Over the course of the last 15 years of doing commercial title searches, we've seen over 118 different varieties of liens on property. And even to this day, we're finding new types of liens in the past 18 months that didn't even exist five years ago. One of the most common types of new liens are that have to do with financial distress because of the crash in 2008. Some cities and counties are now going to creating lien types that give them priority on foreclosure property. Let's say, for example, a certain bank forecloses on a property, the owners have left, the property is vacant, but the bank is not taking possession of that piece of real estate. In some cases, there will be disrepair of the property itself. Sometimes the grass gets long; doesn't get cut. It creates a hazard, in some cases, for the neighborhood. So counties and cities across the country are creating certain types of cleanup liens that are enforced against the lender. Even though they're not technically the owner yet, they're enforced against the lender. Sometimes these cleanup liens have super-priority status where they even jump ahead of other mortgages, of other taxes. So it really puts the onus on that lender to get that property up to snuff. So don't forget, there are over 100 types of liens on properties. In some cases, they won't all be found just in the primary land records office. Some of these liens are environmental liens that are at the Secretary of State or the DEP. In some cases, they're liens that are in civil court records. In some cases, even probate records will have liens. So don't forget to look at all the possible sources of liens on a property when running your title search. Better yet, make sure you get a certified title abstract from an examiner who knows what sources to check in any county so you get all your liens. If you have questions about real estate you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.